


Baby It's Cold Outside

by Nativestar



Series: Advent Calendar [1]
Category: MacGyver (TV 2016)
Genre: Episode: s02e03 Roulette Wheel + Wire, Gen, Hurt/Comfort, Hypothermia
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-01
Updated: 2020-12-01
Packaged: 2021-03-09 19:00:50
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 663
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27821149
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Nativestar/pseuds/Nativestar
Summary: A missing scene for 2x03 Roulette Wheel + Wire set between the cold open and Phoenix medical.
Series: Advent Calendar [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2035885
Comments: 20
Kudos: 54





	Baby It's Cold Outside

**Author's Note:**

> Written for the whump advent calendar: (1st – 3rd December) Hypothermia.

You’d think, that when you were rescued the hard bit would be over, that things would start getting better, but for Mac it got worse. It had been cold inside their little ice structure, but it was _bitterly_ cold outside. The brief journey to the helicopter was enough to deplete whatever heat he had left and he was shivering uncontrollably before they took off.

After that, his world got fuzzy, and he struggled to follow the co-pilots instructions. Fumbling the seatbelt and staring blankly at a blanket until Jack folded it around him, leaving his arm there to hold it in place. It was noisy in the cabin and hard to make out what anyone was saying, especially when it sounded like it was coming from down a long pipe. Fatigue settled on him, heavier than the blanket and despite the violent shivers he knew he wouldn’t be able to hold off sleep for much longer.

He was safe.

Jack was safe.

There was no real reason to fight any more, and so he stopped resisting the darkness and let it engulf him.

* * *

Mac woke slowly to the familiar sounds of hospital. A regular beep sounding out his own heartbeat, the occasional click and a quiet hum in the background. He could feel warm, humid air coming from a mask on his face and his first instinct was to pull it off, but since that would involve moving from his warm burrito of blankets he decided to tolerate it for now. As he peeled his eyes open, blinking away the fuzziness, he saw he’d scored himself a private room.

Or semi-private.

Sat next to him was a pile of blankets wearing Jack Dalton’s face.

“Morning.” Jack said, as he noticed Mac’s eyes on him. “Or at least, I think it’s still morning. I’m too warm here to dig my arm out and check my watch.”

“Should you be out of bed?” Mac asked tiredly, his voice muffled and he wiggled his fingers out enough to pull the mask to his chin before stuffing them back under the covers.

Jack’s blankets moved slightly, hiding a shrug. “I’m more or less back to normal temperature, the frost butt is a different story, but I’ve got a cushion to sit on, that’s helping.”

“What happened?” Mac asked frowning. He remembered getting on the rescue chopper but after that it slips into a haze of disjointed memories.

“You checked out on us about ten minutes into the flight. A combination of hypothermia, exhaustion and dehydration.”

“What about you?”

“All of the above, same as you, just didn’t hit me quite so hard.” Guilt clouded Jack’s eyes. “I should have made you take more breaks.”

“Not your fault, Jack. And I’m gonna be fine.” Mac said, before yawning. And eyed the warmed saline connected to his IV with suspicion, he’d only just woke up, he couldn’t be tired already.

“How long do we need to stay here?” Mac asked.

“They want to monitor you for the next twenty four hours. Something about hypothermia and arrhythmias so they want to keep an eye on your heart, run some tests, then they’ll ship us back to Phoenix medical.” Jack said with a lack of enthusiasm. “They also said you’d probably sleep for most of that.”

Mac opened his eyes, where he had been in the middle of taking a long blink, to see Jack’s smirk. Jack extracted one of his own hands from his bundle of blankets and replaced the oxygen mask over Mac’s face.

“Get some more rest, bud.”

“Not tired.” Mac mumbled with his eyes already shut.

“Sure.”

Mac stubbornly cracked one eye open. “You need rest too.”

“I will, Nurse Ratched makes her rounds in five minutes, I’ll be back in bed before then.” Jack looked at the door as if concerned she might be back early.

“Knew you shouldn’t be out of bed...” Mac muttered, his victory short lived as sleep gently pulled him under again.


End file.
